Description: Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg’s autumn 1862 invasion of
Kentucky had reached the outskirts of Louisville and Cincinnati, but he
was forced to retreat and regroup. On October 7, the Federal army of Maj.
Gen. Don Carlos Buell, numbering nearly 55,000, converged on the small
crossroads town of Perryville, Kentucky, in three columns. Union forces
first skirmished with Rebel cavalry on the Springfield Pike before the
fighting became more general, on Peters Hill, as the grayclad infantry
arrived. The next day, at dawn, fighting began again around Peters Hill
as a Union division advanced up the pike, halting just before the Confederate
line. The fighting then stopped for a time. After noon, a Confederate division
struck the Union left flank and forced it to fall back. When more Confederate
divisions joined the fray, the Union line made a stubborn stand, counterattacked,
but finally fell back with some troops routed. Buell did not know of the
happenings on the field, or he would have sent forward some reserves. Even
so, the Union troops on the left flank, reinforced by two brigades, stabilized
their line, and the Rebel attack sputtered to a halt. Later, a Rebel brigade
assaulted the Union division on the Springfield Pike but was repulsed and
fell back into Perryville. The Yankees pursued, and skirmishing occurred
in the streets in the evening before dark. Union reinforcements were threatening
the Rebel left flank by now. Bragg, short of men and supplies, withdrew
during the night, and, after pausing at Harrodsburg, continued the Confederate
retrograde by way of Cumberland Gap into East Tennessee. The Confederate
offensive was over, and the Union controlled Kentucky.